Evo Morales, Privatizer?

Not long after Bolivia's leftist president nationalized natural gas, he started one of the biggest privatization programs in recent Latin American history. Of course, he didn't call it privatization—he called it land reform:

Leftist President Evo Morales launched a sweeping land reform plan on Saturday by handing over roughly 9,600 square miles of state-owned land to poor Indians….

The ceremony came after talks broke down between Morales and agribusiness leaders on land reforms that involve handing out 77,000 square miles of government land—an area twice the size of Portugal—over the next five years.

Like most land reform plans, this one will eventually affect private holdings as well, though the holdings in question owe more to the remnants of Latin feudalism than to the market.